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Oklahoma State's Gary Thompson selected for FSLI honorOklahoma Gary A. Thompson of Oklahoma State University's Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources has been accepted into the prestigious Food Systems Leadership Institute. Thompson serves as head of the OSU department of biochemistry and molecular biology, providing leadership for planning, developing and implementing departmental teaching, research, extension and international programs. FSLI is dedicated to advancing and strengthening food systems by imparting new leaders with the skills and knowledge necessary to invent and reinvent the food systems of the future. The program is part of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, with funding support provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Additional funding for Thompson's participation was made possible by the division and OSU. "It's a significant honor to be accepted into the national institute, which helps participants prepare for important responsibilities and upper-level leadership roles in food systems programs and organizations," said Robert E. Whitson, dean and director of the division and OSU vice president of agricultural programs. FSLI scholars participate in a rigorous two-year leadership development experience that focuses on personal leadership skills, leadership for organizational change and broadening food systems perspectives. "A systems approach acknowledges the relationships of food production relative to health and nutrition, environmental quality, natural resources, rural communities, globalization and a host of emerging issues surrounding these and other topics," Whitson said. "Gary's acceptance of this challenge speaks highly of him, and bodes well for the division, university and residents of Oklahoma and the region." The first year focuses on intensive executive education-style residential learning sessions at three university locations. Thompson will perform assessments to increase self-awareness of his leadership style, as well as to develop and implement personal development plans prepared with the assistance of a professional mentor. Interactive distance learning is used between residential sessions. During his second year with the institute, Thompson will develop and carry out an approved individual leadership project of importance to a food systems program or organization. Thompson assumed the duties of department head on July 1, 2007, coming to OSU from the University of Arkansas system, where he served in a number of important leadership roles with the UA Division of Agriculture. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska in 1979, master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1985 and doctoral degree from Purdue University in 1989. Thompson was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the department of plant sciences at the University of Arizona, and served as a faculty member until 2000. He held consecutive summer appointments as a visiting research professor in the department of plant biology at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 2003 through 2005. His research has mainly focused on the molecular biology of plant vascular systems and plant responses to insects that feed on the food-conducting tissues of plants. Thompson is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Plant Physiologists, Alpha Zeta and Gamma Sigma Delta. Previous OSU faculty members to be accepted into the FSLI program are Jonathan Edelson, then head of the OSU department of entomology and plant pathology and now assistant director of the division's statewide Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system, and Linda Martin, former assistant dean of the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, now associate dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University. 12/29/08 Date: 12/23/08
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